Hi there! Stoneman, head of Outhouse S&P here. Earlier today, Action Comics artist Tony Daniel, according to some screenshots that The Outhouse is unable to confirm the veracity of, got into an exchange on Twitter "over the term "friend zone" and whether or not it is sexist. Afterward, he apparently quit Twitter, or at least made it inaccessible to all but approved followers. Twitter's error message claims the page "doesn't exist." Read the Tumblr account here.

Here's an excerpt:

Tony Daniel, writer of such classics [insert sarcasm font] Battle for the Cowl is currently writing Action Comics. I will not comment on the quality of that book because it’s inconsequential, but lets just say it ain’t on a my pull list. In his most recent issue he has Clark say to Jimmy that he’s been “friend zoned”. If you’re following me you don’t need to be told why the idea of friend zoning is sexist, but after seeing a post on here about how someone confronted him about it I went to see if he’d apologized. He had not. So I decided that I would add my voice to what I hope will be others. Let’s just say, he did not take kindly to it.

Now before I keep posting I want to make a point of where I was trying to say here. It’s something that Smooth did in his post but really Bomani Jones said once on Hoop Speak. No one has racism or sexism repellent. It’s something we all grow up with and it becomes a part of us. My goal here was to say that the thing he did was sexist, not that he was sexist. Spoiler alert, he did not take it that way.

It should be noted, for those who think I'm being unfair, that Daniel's side of the story cannot be represented since he deleted or hid his Twitter account. I did verify that the account used to be active, and appears to be Daniel's account, and that it is now unreachable. Also, his gallery of Facebook header images contained the image at the top of the article, objectifying Wonder Woman's butt.

The Tumblr blog where the story comes from, "leaguerulesfrownupon," describes its purpose as "Comics and Sports from a guy working for ESPN/NBA." I have no idea how to figure out Tumblr, but from what I can tell, the blog seems to have many posts with hundreds of notes, and the Twitter account has over 25,000 tweets.

The whole thing is strange, and I'm not sure what to think of it, so I'm just reporting what I know, and leaving it to you, long suffering Outhouse readers, to decide for yourselves.

We're going to put out a request for comment tonight, but, you know, DC creators aren't allowed to talk to us.

Hi there! Stoneman, head of Outhouse S&P here. Earlier today, Action Comics artist Tony Daniel, according to some screenshots that The Outhouse is unable to confirm the veracity of, got into an exchange on Twitter "over the term "friend zone" and whether or not it is sexist. Afterward, he apparently quit Twitter, or at least made it inaccessible to all but approved followers. Twitter's error message claims the page "doesn't exist." Read the Tumblr account here.

Here's an excerpt:

Tony Daniel, writer of such classics [insert sarcasm font] Battle for the Cowl is currently writing Action Comics. I will not comment on the quality of that book because it’s inconsequential, but lets just say it ain’t on a my pull list. In his most recent issue he has Clark say to Jimmy that he’s been “friend zoned”. If you’re following me you don’t need to be told why the idea of friend zoning is sexist, but after seeing a post on here about how someone confronted him about it I went to see if he’d apologized. He had not. So I decided that I would add my voice to what I hope will be others. Let’s just say, he did not take kindly to it.

Now before I keep posting I want to make a point of where I was trying to say here. It’s something that Smooth did in his post but really Bomani Jones said once on Hoop Speak. No one has racism or sexism repellent. It’s something we all grow up with and it becomes a part of us. My goal here was to say that the thing he did was sexist, not that he was sexist. Spoiler alert, he did not take it that way.

It should be noted, for those who think I'm being unfair, that Daniel's side of the story cannot be represented since he deleted or hid his Twitter account. I did verify that the account used to be active, and appears to be Daniel's account, and that it is now unreachable. Also, his gallery of Facebook header images contained the image at the top of the article, objectifying Wonder Woman's butt.

The Tumblr blog where the story comes from, "leaguerulesfrownupon," describes its purpose as "Comics and Sports from a guy working for ESPN/NBA." I have no idea how to figure out Tumblr, but from what I can tell, the blog seems to have many posts with hundreds of notes, and the Twitter account has over 25,000 tweets.

The whole thing is strange, and I'm not sure what to think of it, so I'm just reporting what I know, and leaving it to you, long suffering Outhouse readers, to decide for yourselves.

We're going to put out a request for comment tonight, but, you know, DC creators aren't allowed to talk to us.

Outhouse Editor

Friendzoning is the process by which a man befriends a girl, is extremely kind to her, offers her emotional support, and the bitch doesn’t even have the decency to sleep with him. I mean, the cheek of it, right? But never fear, the Nice Guys have rallied together to support one and other through this difficult time, reassuring each other that if we can’t see what a catch they are, then those chicas are obviously shallow douchebag-loving megatrolls, unworthy of any more of their time. Entire websites have now been dedicated to hating that special female in their lives through verbal assassination, which seems a bit rich if you’re going to simultaneously refer to yourself as ‘the ideal boyfriend’. Meanwhile, pseudo-scientific bullshit articles like this one in Ask Men magazine explain away the friendzone by saying that sex is a natural state of affairs with anyone you have a passing friendly feeling for, but women ‘find it easier’ to keep most men as friends because for them, ‘sex comes bundled up with an onslaught of dizzying and complicated emotions.’ The same article even includes the assertion that men see the world in a ‘natural’ way but ‘women can’t process this logic’, so they set up a false dichotomy (friends/lovers) instead. Silly women and their silly ploys. Why can’t they just man up and have sex with all their friends already? If only their brains could just cope with logic.

The friendzone is a pretty bad idea on a whole lot of levels, but let’s start with the most obvious. Nice Guys, are you listening? This concerns you. Okay, here goes. If you’re talking about women like this, then you’re not really a very nice guy. As a lady, I reserve the right to choose who I have sex with - and if you’re expecting automatic access to the ladyparts because you’ve chilled out over a chai latte with me, then there’s not a whole lot separating you from that guy called Chad who slaps your ass as he buys you a shot at the bar. Man, at least the ass-slapper is up-front with his tactics and easier to avoid: you can see the greasy tips of his waxed up hair before he gets close enough for a proper grope, and run a mile. Nice Guys? If they’re in it for vajayjay, then even by Chad’s standards they’re kind of creepy.

Outhouse Editor

Friendzoning is the process by which a man befriends a girl, is extremely kind to her, offers her emotional support, and the bitch doesn’t even have the decency to sleep with him. I mean, the cheek of it, right? But never fear, the Nice Guys have rallied together to support one and other through this difficult time, reassuring each other that if we can’t see what a catch they are, then those chicas are obviously shallow douchebag-loving megatrolls, unworthy of any more of their time. Entire websites have now been dedicated to hating that special female in their lives through verbal assassination, which seems a bit rich if you’re going to simultaneously refer to yourself as ‘the ideal boyfriend’. Meanwhile, pseudo-scientific bullshit articles like this one in Ask Men magazine explain away the friendzone by saying that sex is a natural state of affairs with anyone you have a passing friendly feeling for, but women ‘find it easier’ to keep most men as friends because for them, ‘sex comes bundled up with an onslaught of dizzying and complicated emotions.’ The same article even includes the assertion that men see the world in a ‘natural’ way but ‘women can’t process this logic’, so they set up a false dichotomy (friends/lovers) instead. Silly women and their silly ploys. Why can’t they just man up and have sex with all their friends already? If only their brains could just cope with logic.

The friendzone is a pretty bad idea on a whole lot of levels, but let’s start with the most obvious. Nice Guys, are you listening? This concerns you. Okay, here goes. If you’re talking about women like this, then you’re not really a very nice guy. As a lady, I reserve the right to choose who I have sex with - and if you’re expecting automatic access to the ladyparts because you’ve chilled out over a chai latte with me, then there’s not a whole lot separating you from that guy called Chad who slaps your ass as he buys you a shot at the bar. Man, at least the ass-slapper is up-front with his tactics and easier to avoid: you can see the greasy tips of his waxed up hair before he gets close enough for a proper grope, and run a mile. Nice Guys? If they’re in it for vajayjay, then even by Chad’s standards they’re kind of creepy.

Staff Writer

Men can put women in the friend zone just as much as women can put men there. Gay men could put other men in the friend zone, it's the same with gay women. There is nothing gender specific in the phrase.

And of course, even if you somehow believe it is offensive, it's not Tony Daniel who said it, it's him having Jimmy Olsen, an immature teenager say it. People seem to forget that comics writers are writing characters, when someone writes the Red Skull saying he hates Jews, that doesn't mean they hate Jews! It's a character!

For fuck's sake, it's pathetic how much some people look to be offended.

Men can put women in the friend zone just as much as women can put men there. Gay men could put other men in the friend zone, it's the same with gay women. There is nothing gender specific in the phrase.

And of course, even if you somehow believe it is offensive, it's not Tony Daniel who said it, it's him having Jimmy Olsen, an immature teenager say it. People seem to forget that comics writers are writing characters, when someone writes the Red Skull saying he hates Jews, that doesn't mean they hate Jews! It's a character!

For fuck's sake, it's pathetic how much some people look to be offended.